Please use the following link to RSVP and help our caterer with preparations.
Please try to select your dessert preferences while you’re in there. There’s a little checkbox for additional items.
Pecan Pie or Banana Pudding
When you receive confirmation of your sign up it will say for you to bring your menu selections, NOT. That’s just the way this signup thing assumes you’re signing up and volunteering to bring things. We don’t have the ability to edit the confirmations. So please don’t bring anything but yourselves! You may pay at the door if you haven’t already done so. $20 each.
Oh, and if you’ve signed up at one of our meetings, then please go ahead and use this link to confirm. It will really help a lot!
News and Notes for the 12 Nov Regular Post meeting.
6:00 PM Pizza, Chips and Soft Drinks during social time.
On or about 6:30, Begin Opening Protocol.
Boys State attendees.
Introduce guest speaker Mayor James Maness to come and address post and answer questions
Adopt Minutes as posted by Adjutant
Christmas Banquet planning. The annual Christmas Banquet will again be held at Rutland Senior Place at 435 NW Rutland Rd. Doors will open at 6:00 PM. To make reservations, let Steve Iles know at our meeting that you want to attend, or you can make reservations online at the following link. Post 281: Christmas Banquet for 2024 . Be sure to choose your main course and your dessert. The cost is $20 per person. You can pay at the meeting or at the door the night of the banquet. Special Guest Speaker for the evening will be Susan Hunter as she describes the writing of her book 77 Letters, regarding letters sent to American Soldiers in Viet Nam from her mother.
Challenge Coin, We have worked up a challenge coin for our post. It will be introduced to the members on Tuesday. The decision was made to offer members a chance to purchase their own coins to give away. The cost of each coin will be $ 8.00 each for members. The coins will be given away to special recipients by the post where their service to our post and our community is noted. Attached is a working proof of the coin. (Terry wrote this. I can’t see how to attach the proof and it looked to tiny. So I thought to make it the featured image, above. Hope you like it! JM)
New Business, Wreaths Across America, New event for the post to participate in. David Hale and 2nd Vice Bob Snuck are our post representatives. A member would like us to consider making this a yearly effort on the part of the post, if nothing else, just that our post should ask for a donation to contribute to the cause. One member of our post is planning to donate $300.00
Flowers for Steven Cates, Tyler’s father, on behalf of the post.
Our Honor Guard will be participating at the 11 am ceremony at the Wilson County Veterans Plaza (304 E Main St, Lebanon, TN 37087) and at Noon an Honor Guard detachment will be at Mission BBQ (Opry Mills, 161 Opry Mills Dr, Nashville, TN 37214) to present the colors and our own David Hale signing the National Anthem for their ceremony.
Please use the following link to RSVP and help our caterer with preparations.
Although an email address is not required during the RSVP, if it in you’ll get a reminder 2 days before the banquet. You will also find a button there to add the event to your calendar.
Oh, and if you’ve signed up at one of our meetings, then please go ahead and use this link to confirm. It will really help a lot!
As most of you should know, I have stepped down from the Location Coordinator position for Wreaths Across America at the Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery. Although I am still involved in Fundraising and volunteering for the program. Amanda Brown and her husband Jeremy “Kid” Brown has assumed the roles as Location Coordinator and Co-Coordinator. For any questions, comments or concerns about the program itself or the ceremony and wreath laying, please contact Amanda at abrownwaatn@gmail.com or call/text her cell (918) 808-2779. I continue to be a point of contact for anything concerning donations, sponsorships or designating a Grave Specific request for the remainder of this year.
We now have 79 Kroger shoppers who have designated Wreaths Across America as their chosen charity. Code “YW675”. Every 3 months we have received a check from Kroger averaging $350 each representing a percentage of the proceeds from shoppers using their Kroger Plus card. Thank you. If anyone needs help registering WAA as the charity designation for your Kroger Plus card, please contact me to walk you through the process.
For the past 5 years, WAA has offered a wreath match from mid December through mid January. This can be done because they had a business sponsor step up and pledge the funds to match all purchased wreaths during that time frame. It is the most value for your donation/sponsorship. However, this year, we currently have a pledge from the Andrea Waitt Carlton Family Foundation, locally, to match any purchased wreaths until Veterans Day (November 11th) up to the first 1,000 wreaths. This is for our cemetery only and by supporting through one of our Sponsorship Groups, it provides even more value. If you do not have a specific group link, for example, http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/TN0080 then when you view the WAA Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery page http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/TNMTVN scroll down to the bottom and select one of the Sponsorship Groups to support. Please be sure that your online donation is going through a Wreaths Across America link and not some outside organization. We cannot guarantee wreaths will be available, if sourced through them, because we do not maintain a working relationship. Checks made payable to “Wreaths Across America” may be mailed to 91 Appleton Road, Five Points, TN 38457.
Our need is always a moving target as the cemetery averages 8-15 burials per week. The target for December 14th has been set at 14,000 wreaths and as of this morning we are at 8,284. If you have been putting off or waiting for a certain time of year to sponsor wreaths, NOW is the time! We have been blessed to have a wreath for every headstone the past 3 years. Now the challenge is to keep attaining that goal. Making a purchase during the matching offer, as we have right now, is our best opportunity to be successful once again.
Veterans Day Parade at Alvin C. York VA Medical Center
You are invited to VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System Veterans Day Parade!
Join us on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. for a heartfelt celebration honoring the brave individuals who served in our armed forces. The parade will commence at the front steps of Building 1, located at Alvin C. York VA Medical Center. We invite you to bring your chairs and enjoy a vibrant parade featuring a flyover, live music, flags carried by Junior ROTC, beautifully decorated floats, antique cars, and various entertainment. This is a wonderful opportunity to express gratitude and celebrate the sacrifices made by our Veterans.
There will be pre-parade events including music, Veteran resource tables, and local food vendors.
Tickets are $25 for Adults, ($10 for 12 and under) and gives you entry into the Event, Sampling from each of our Veterans Campers with sides. There will be live Music entertainment also.
You will be automatically entered into several drawings we will have throughout the day giving away items from Oklahoma Joe Smokers, Nine Line Apparel, Drip EZ BBQ supplies, Grill Your Ass Off Sauces and Spices and Heritage Distilling Whiskey commemorating the 80th Anniversary of D-Day.
We will have Craft Beers, Water and Soft Drinks available for a separate purchase. We will have some young ladies from the American Heritage Girls Troop selling desserts as a fundraiser.
The American Legion is a great Sponsor of the Veterans BBQ Camp veteransbbqcamp.org so we invite Post 281 to come and set up an information booth representing the American Legion.
Rural Hill Farm https://ruralhillfarm.com/ is a beautiful venue with plenty of open space so I would encourage Legionnaires to bring some folding Camping chairs for their convenience and comfort. There will be tables and chairs set up for dining on the BBQ.
Service Dogs are allowed and encouraged. Other dogs/pets please stay home for this one.
This event is open to the Public so please share with your Family….Friends….Churches and local Businesses and encourage them to attend.
Reach out to me directly via Call or Text or email using the Contact information below if you have any questions.
